by Aj Brady

Created on: March 30, 2008

Wrestling's Monday Night Wars during the mid-to-late 1990s helped catapult wrestling to almost unprecedented popularity in the United States, and many fans still remember back to those days fondly.

Whilst the World Wrestling Federation's (now World Wrestling Entertainment - WWE) flagship national television program became their Monday night "Raw" showing, the fledgling World Championship Wrestling (WCW) were looking on in the wings, slowly building to a crescendo.

This was the early 1990s, when some stunning setbacks had the WWF on the back foot.

Trouble for the WWF started outside of the ring, with a number of high-profile bitter court cases diminishing the popularity of the once all-consuming federation.

Arguably, one of the biggest wrestling events of the 1990s, and indeed the event that signalled WCW's arrival as a major competitor to the WWF was the organization's ability to lure wrestling's biggest icon, Hulk Hogan, away from the Vince McMahon-led troupe that Hogan had showcased for so long.

Come 1995, and with a talent roster now able to compete with that of the WWF, the WCW made the bold choice to go head-to-head on national TV with their new creation, "Monday Nitro".

The move took quite a deal of courage, and risked alienating hardcore wrestling fans who enjoyed catching both organizations television offerings.

Whilst Nitro was slow to take off, once it kicked into gear, led by WCW superstars such as Hogan, Sting and Ric Flair, the program enjoyed amazing success.

Stunningly, Nitro out-rated Raw over a period of 84 consecutive weeks, and with talent such as Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo steering the creative ship, it seemed as though the WCW was the new major force in wrestling, and more importantly, it was here to stay.

The quality of Monday Nitro's offering cannot be denied, but what also must be considered is that the WCW caught the WWF at the perfect time.

With such innovations as wrestling's new World order (nWo) and Bill Goldberg's famous year-long unbeaten streak, the WCW were making all the running during the Monday Night Wars.

The WWF had no real icon wrestlers leading their brand at that time, and after court battles and the general drop in popularity in wrestling in the early part of the decade, the WWF was ripe for the picking.

It took some extraordinary events in the wrestling world for the tide to be turned.

The famous "screwing over" of Bret Hart in Montreal, and the creation of the character of "Mr. McMahon" were some important events in the rebirth both of the WWF and of wrestling in general.

Plus, successful crafting of wrestlers such as The Rock and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin into genuine wrestling and pop-culture icons helped steer the WWF back from the abyss, ushering in what is now known as the "attitude" era of wrestling, following on from the 1980s' successful "rock and roll wrestling" era.

Once the WWF, and in-turn Monday night Raw regained control over the wrestling landscape, they would not relinquish it.

By the end of the decade, the WCW were in increasing financial difficulty, and the Monday night ratings were clearly back in favor of the WWF.

Unfortunately for all wrestling fans, come 2001 and the WCW could go on no longer, being bought out by a now-rampant Vince McMahon and his WWF.

This ended the Monday Night Wars, and for the forseeable future, that's the way things will stay.

The only hope of something similar being revived would be the fledgling wrestling organization Total Nonstop Action (TNA) having a huge burst in popularity and, following the WCW's lead, having the gumption to schedule a nationally syndicated TV program each week head-to-head with a flagship WWE program.

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